Wednesday, August 30, 2006

September 14th is the day, after all

We all know about the NOA event taking place on September 14th. Now, there will be a Nintendo of Europe event in London the very next day, on September 15th. GoNintendo reported about it first, I believe. And I have also received the invitation since.

Also, I have made some enquiries and it seems that there will not be such an event in Japan. Consequently, I am forced to change my mind about when the launch details will be announced. I now believe that the two events by NOA and NOE will break the news, after all. I do wonder, though, when the Japanese launch details will be announced. NOA might have Miyamoto and Iwata participate via videoconference.

So watch that countdown at the top. That is when we will find out. Also, Nintendo really do have another surprise in store for us, which will be revealed at these events. Just how big that surprise will be, I do not yet know. But stick with this blog and I might be able give you some indication soon.

Finally, Makerofdust on the NSider forums alerted me to a Swiss online store that started its Wii pre-orders today. When I called them this afternoon, the consoles had already been sold. Their entire first batch was sold out within four hours. Just how many they had been allocated they wouldn´t say. But they said it was quite a number. By the way: their asking price was 399 Swiss Francs, which converts to $320 or €250. Just thought I should give you some positive news to counterbalance the rumours of production line problems.Sources: GoNintendo, GoNintendo, Makerofdust

Some pre order info for the readers here in the U.S. FYE, a national music and movie store has begun pre orders for the Wii. I went to my local store on 8/25 and I was first on the list! They require a $50 dollar deposit to reserve a console.

As for the guys wondering about if the Wii would be manufactured in the same factory as Wii it is more than possible but probably more than unlikely.

I would say more manufactured by the same company than in the same factory. Many phone brands for example are manufactured by Taiwanese companies in China factories and they have different plants in various cities. The bigger the manufacturer usually the more plants that have.

The only thing I doubt is this guy getting access to the plants. In China it is quite possible.

Nintendo have working samples. These samples have had their final moulds done and insides and work. Most likely the samples were done by the manufacturer who is doing the mass & final production.

I preordered my wii on www.wog.ch! The Release Date they mention is only a good guess as they say.

Yup, they printed those flyers in July already and the release date mentioned on them (mid-October) is a complete guess (and a really old one at that). Now they believe the system will launch around November 10th, judging from release dates on third parties´ launch titles.